The Communications Authority of Kenya has announced that firms which do not want to share premium content will not be allowed to operate in the country after a bitter tussle involving a number of firms in Kenya concerning World Cup.
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, a state owned entity, which is supposed to be on all PayTV platforms in the country and which has full rights to show FIFA World Cup asked all its regular payTV clients not to show its channel during the World Cup citing infirngement of media rights. Most people had to run to DSTV and GoTV both owned by South Africa’s Multichoice with a minory holding by the Kenyan govt.
According to evidence obtained today (all letter attached) by TechMoran, the fight was not smooth.
However, in a turn of events, Francis W. Wangusi, Director General, the Communications Authority of Kenya, during a media forum at the ICT Week workshop said players have taken themselves to breach or go to court to use them to frustrate others or prevent them from airing World Cup on their channels but the authority is moving to ensure that premium content such as world cup is shared and those that do not want to share will not be allowed to operate in the country.
Wangusi said, “Premium content in this country has to be shared. They will have to share with others on commercial basis and they are not going to use it to abuse their dominance in the market just as their counterparts in the telcoms market. Everybody wishing to to get a licence with us should agree to share content with others on a commercial basis. Come next World Cup, these content has to be shared and not used by those players for profit.”
He added that if those firms do not agree to share they will leave the country and that they should not use premium content to force Kenyans to pay because they are the only ones with it.
